Page 41 of Steel

She narrows her eyes, playfully glaring at me over her shoulder. “Technically, yes. But I guess after everything that’s happened, I get it. And I appreciate what you’re doing for me and Austin.”

For now.

Tempe’s got a life. A brother to raise. Wounds to heal.

And my world is no place for a girl who is eight years younger than me, with her whole future ahead of her.

“Go, sit. You’ve had a long day, Jameson. Let me make you something to eat.”

I chuckle, sliding onto the stool closest to the stove. “I’m still getting used to you being nice to me.”

She rolls her eyes. “I could say the same for you.”

Tempe moves around the kitchen like she already knows where everything is. She grabs two plates from a cabinet and then bends over to grab a frying pan. Her ass peeks out as the T-shirt rides up, and it’s borderline torture when I know I can’t do anything about it.

I’ve been so tired and busy lately that I haven’t even had the energy to get laid. And with Tempe roaming my kitchen like it’s hers, making me a sandwich, every nerve in my body is on edge.

“Pearl said we’ve met before.” Tempe pops back up with a pan and sets it on the stove. “I didn’t realize my mombrought me around here, but I guess I was only two, so I don’t remember it. And back then, we never stayed in one place long. You lived here then, right?”

“Born and raised.” I knock my knuckles on the counter. “Did you move around a lot as a kid?”

“Too much.” Tempe huffs. “I can’t imagine living in one place. I would have given anything to spend a full school year in one city growing up. My mom’s boyfriends never lasted that long.”

“So you and Austin…?”

“We’re technically half-siblings. I was eighteen when she had him.”

“You seem close though.”

“We are. Mom was never that reliable—for me or him. So I tried to make up for it whenever they came through town.” She shakes her head as she butters the bread. “I guess now I’m all he has. Maybe I’ll actually give him a full school year in one place.”

“What about his dad?”

“He’s not much better than Helix. Or so my mom told me. I never met him, and I don’t know who he is, except that she met him in Austin.”

“Texas?”

“Yep.” She plops one sandwich in the pan, and then the other, and they start sizzling.

“So your name… Tempe.”

“Helix was riding through Arizona when they met, and she followed him back here. She said it was fun times until it wasn’t, which is how she operated with men.”

I try to picture Tempe’s childhood, moving around nonstop. Parents who couldn’t commit to the responsibilities they bred. It’s the opposite of how I grew up, and also somehow, the same.

“Mom always said she was going to settle down.” Tempe shakes her head. “She was going to change. When she showed up last week, she swore this move was different. I didn’t believe her, and now…”

“Now, what?” I ask when she doesn’t finish her sentence.

“Now I guess she’ll never prove me wrong.” Tempe flips over the sandwiches. “Austin deserves so much more than this. More than she gave him, and more than I can.”

“You offer him plenty. Don’t doubt yourself, wildfire.”

She rolls her eyes. “You don’t know me, Jameson.Idon’t even know that side of me. I’ve never raised a kid. What if things get hard and it turns out I’m just like her?”

“You standing here is already proof you’re not.” I shrug. “You’re strong, Tempe, even if some days you feel like you’re faking it. Even if it’s just a front you’re putting on for those around you. Strength isn’t always apparent. Sometimes, you just have to manifest it into existence when life throws a curveball. And I’ve already seen enough to know you’re more than capable of doing that.”

“You have a lot of faith in me.”

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